ENVIRONMENT & AUTOMATION

[ AUTOMATION ]

The increased use of fully automated systems in many areas of the economy is rising, and with it, the demands on our products.

Quality is the benchmark – our products must also function smoothly and without incident in automated processes. To ensure use on these systems and to be able to comply with dimensional tolerance requirements, our processes have already been partially automated.

Future-oriented – Competitive production is hardly possible without automated pallet manufacturing/repair. For this reason, our facility was expanded in the spring of 2020 with another automatic sorting and repair system, as well as a large warehouse. Everything is fully automated: from the robot line to the self-driving forklift.

[ ENVIRONMENT ]

Sustainability and resource conservation – topics that the Wintergroup not only deals with intensively but a philosophy that is also lived out in the company.

For us, acting sustainably means using our resources efficiently and in an environmentally friendly way – reuse and recycling are our top priorities. Damaged pallets are repaired and reused, rejects and residual materials are recycled and reprocessed as wood chips.

We are constantly investing in new machines and vehicles to keep CO2 emissions as low as possible. Most of our fleet already consists of EURO-VI vehicles, and internal routes are traveled exclusively with electric vehicles such as our electric carts or electric cargo bikes. In addition, we already use electric forklifts for the majority of pallet loading and unloading. A company-owned e-charging station is also located on the company premises.

Our goal is to increase the share of renewable energy – equipping 1500 m² of our production halls with energy-saving LED lighting systems, which reduce our climate footprint by 20.14 tonnes of CO2 per year, and the construction of two photovoltaic systems with a total of 335 KW for power supply were important measures in the area of energy efficiency.

Furthermore, our electricity supply is 100% sourced from renewable energy carriers, which means no additional CO2 emissions are caused. Due to the measures taken in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy, we were awarded the Industrieviertel winning project in 2017/2018.

We focus on reusing existing resources – for pallet cleaning, we use previously collected rainwater, and our halls are heated partly with wood chips from sustainably managed forests and partly with air-source heat pumps.

Sustainable? Yes, please! – Some of our products are PEFC-certified and bear the seal of approval for the environment and quality, the "Austrian Ecolabel." All products awarded the >Austrian Ecolabel< meet the highest ecological, health, and quality requirements after strict examination. The certification stands for quality, environmentally friendly product design, durability, fitness for use, and compliance with standards.

PEFC certification stands for the responsible use of resources and sustainable forest management. The seal guarantees that the products were produced in an ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable manner.